Coaching Centres: Beware Of The MONEY Making Business

By Soumya Kundra:

We all know that studies in India are stressful and demanding. The cutthroat competition takes a toll on the student’s health and mental peace. As soon as a child enters grade 11th and takes up science as the preferred stream, the pressure on him/her starts mounting up. Parents get extra cautious regarding their child’s education and the hunt for the best coaching centre to supplement the studies going on in school begins. This is done as parents carry a vision of seeing their child in the best engineering or medical college after the completion of his/her 12th standard. So as to fulfil this dream coaching centres seem to be the best possible option.

The hoardings of these institutes can be found at every nook and corner of the city. Each promising your child a future which no other institute can provide. But these institutes today, are not at all aligned with the motive that they had once started off with, i.e. — to teach and impart knowledge to the child. They have become nothing but money making businesses that hoodwink people by providing them with fake promises of extraordinary education by excellent faculty. The guru-dakshina i.e. the fee that they charge is an extremely large amount while the education they impart is not in sync with the high fee they charge .

As in case of my friend who got herself enrolled in one such reputed institute in our locality, after her parents had a talk with the head faculty member, who was all suited up and seemed very sophisticated with high intellect. Impressed by the conversation with the gentleman, her parents paid the first instalment of ₹40 000. She attended the classes for a week but was unsatisfied with the quality of education provided and the methodology used to teach. But she knew that there was no way out as her parents had already paid a huge amount to the centre so she decided not to tell her parents about her dissatisfaction. But hell broke loose one day when to her and her other batch mates surprise , the coaching centre was all shut , No-not for a day or two — but Forever .
It seemed as if a shop with a closed shutter was in front of their eyes. All the contact numbers they had, failed to answer. Most of them were switched off. Many parents and children raised slogans in front of the centre, many threw bricks and stones at the building but obviously it was all futile. Finally, everybody went back home lamenting the loss of their hard earned money and consoled one another wishing to treat the incident as a nightmare.

This incident turned out to be an eye-opener for me and many others. It’s not just coaching centres for engineering entrances or medical entrances which have mushroomed up everywhere, centres for preparation of every exam have come up promising you good education, best placements and what not.

So before you plan to join any coaching institute; my advice would be to at least first check the credibility of the institute, the qualification of teachers and talk to the already enrolled students to get their feedback about the the quality of education.